New Hampshire Republican State Lawmaker Kyle Tasker Charged with Luring 14-Year-Old for Sex

A New Hampshire state lawmaker serving on a children’s law committee has been charged with attempting to exploit a 14-year-old girl for sex.

ABC News reports Rep. Kyle Tasker, 30, a Republican representing Nottingham, was arraigned on Wednesday in Candia, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Manchester. In addition to one felony charge of using a computer to lure a child, Tasker was charged with three felony drug counts after police searched his home and said they found marijuana brownies, hallucinogenic mushrooms and other illicit substances. Police also found several firearms which they said seemed strategically placed around Tasker’s home, although he was not charged with any weapons offenses.

“During the completion and execution of the search warrant, law enforcement personnel located an enormous amount of controlled substances and it is apparent from the way they were stored, the volume and the type that they were, these controlled or regulated drugs were there for a distribution operation,” prosecutor Stephanie Ilberg-Lamm told WMUR.

Investigators said the girl’s mother complained in January that Tasker, who her daughter met earlier at a breakfast event, was sending the teen inappropriate Facebook messages, including suggestive comments about sex and drugs and graphic sexual images. According to the mother, Tasker replied that “girls like you can get me in trouble” after she told him she was only 14. The woman also claims Tasker offered to get alcohol and marijuana for her daughter. He also allegedly proposed a sexual threesome with her.

Police then took control of the girl’s social media accounts and, pretending to be the teen, agreed to meet Tasker at a secluded beach on Lucas Pond Road in Nottingham. When Tasker arrived there, he was met by law enforcement officials and arrested.

NECN reports House Speaker Shawn Jasper, who is also a Republican, removed Tasker from his post on the House Committee on Children and Family Law, the legislative body in charge of child protection. Jasper also called on Tasker to resign his legislative seat.

“Representative Tasker is facing serious charges that, if true, are beyond the bounds of human decency,” Jasper said in a statement. “It is clear that given the seriousness of these allegations, Rep. Tasker will be unable to represent his constituents effectively and should resign immediately.”

Tasker has a history of controversy. The Concord Monitorreports he made headlines in 2012 when he dropped a concealed handgun on the floor as he was entering a House committee hearing, and he has also raised eyebrows and ire by joking about women victimized by domestic violence and by allegedly questioning the fitness of black mothers.